MIKEDROP DAILY – Football Over Baseball

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Football > Baseball

2018 Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray has announced his intentions to declare for the 2019 NFL draft, foregoing his MLB contract with the Oakland Athletics.

Let’s take a closer look at his decision:

Why Choose Football

Murray is amazing at football and a blast to watch. Selfishly, I’d much rather watch him play football than baseball

Who is the most marketable MLB star? Can you even identify 10 baseball players by their looks? I’m not sure I can. Murray’s marketability skyrockets in the NFL vs MLB. Social media presence is much larger in football, if he wants the spotlight.

This is a notably weak QB class and Murray immediately skyrockets to the top of draft boards as the first or second QB to be taken

Why Choose Baseball

MLB offers more in the way of potential guaranteed money

Likely a longer professional playing career. Baseball over football potential gives Murray long term health/quality of life as opposed to playing football.

If Murray chose NFL because he didn’t want to play in Oakland, he should know the Raiders might need a quarterback and he still may end up playing a year in the Oakland Coliseum (wouldn’t that be something)

Where does Kyler Murray go in the draft? Many seem to suggest he will be a first round pick, perhaps the first QB off the board. The Arizona Cardinals have the #1 pick in the draft and their new coach had some thoughts on Murray back in October

Kliff Kingsbury back on October 28, 2018:

"Kyler is a freak…..I would take him with the first pick of the draft if I could."

NFL Coaching Search Updates

Three more teams have filled their coaching vacancies on Wednesday.

Why These NFL Coaching Hires are Offensive

The NFL kicked off the off-season with 8 coaching vacancies. Through Wednesday, 6 of them have been filled with 5 being offensive “gurus”. Why are offensive-minded coaches all the rage in the NFL? The answer is quite simple.

Teams are going after the flashy Offensive Coordinators because that allows them to build a long term, consistent offensive system that QBs and players can grow and develop in. When a team loses it’s QB coach or it’s Offensive Coordinator, it’s forced to hire someone else who 9 times out of 10 will implement, at least, a slight variation of the previous system (if not fully overhaul it) and utilize new terminology and plays. Having the head coach be your main play caller means no one can poach him. If you hire a defensive-minded head coach, with a top OC, whose to stop a team from hiring that OC as their head coach the following year? If you hire an offensive head coach, and someone poaches your OC to be their head coach, the system is still in place and you won’t have to make any major adjustments.

Broncos hit a homerun and Browns hit a single, with the potential to score.

Continuing the topic above, the Browns officially hired Freddie Kitchens as their new head coach. Browns could have left status quo, keep interim/DC Gregg Williams in place as head coach and kept Kitchens as the OC. But what happens a year from now if Browns win 10 games, Baker Mayfield continues to progress and every team wants to hire Kitchens? That would be a brutal loss for the Browns. So they opted to promote the coach they had success with, that the QB loves and move forward. I like the move. I call this a single, because the move is a hit with players and fans, but it has the chance to progress into a home run if players do buy in, if he hires the right guy on defense and the Browns continue their upward trajectory.

Bears Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio is an outstanding hire for the Broncos. Kudos to them for being different and for also not hiring Mike Munchack. No offense to Munchak, but we know who he is and what he is as a head coach, based on a previous stint in Tennessee. We don’t know what Fangio is as a head coach, but we can speculate. His defenses have always been ranked near the top of the NFL. Based on his style and how he coaches, I have confidence in his ability to not only coach but to build a culture and a foundation that players and fans can be proud of and also to lead the Broncos (coaching is so much more than X’s and O’s). It also helps that Fangio is bringing with him an overly qualified Offensive Coordinator – Gary Kubiak, who previously won a Super Bowl as Broncos head coach will come out of his mini retirement and coach the offense for Fangio.

Jets struck out

Sticking with the baseball metaphors, I do believe Broncos and Browns are winners during this coaching cycle. The Jets may be the biggest loser (wouldn’t be the first time). With Mike McCarthy on the market, available, and interested, the Jets opted for Adam Gase whose arrogance and stubbornness are among the many reasons he was fired from the Dolphins. “But he coordinated Peyton Manning when the Broncos won the Super Bowl!” Stop it. Peyton coordinates Peyton. Peyton was 40 years old when he played for Gase. I don’t think Gase played a 1% role in Manning’s career development. Despite that, apparently Manning called Jets owners to vouch for Gase. They would have been better off asking Ryan Tannehill, who arguably regressed. Or Jay Cutler, whom Gase coaxed out of retirement last season to stink and miss the playoffs. Gase is the guy you are trusting Sam Darnold with? At least Todd Monken, former Bucs OC with zero NFL head coaching experience, would have been inspiring for the fact that he has proven he can be successful in the NFL. Gase hasn’t proven that, not the last few years.

Maybe I’ll be wrong. And this will be a good hire. But I would have hired McCarthy. If for no other reason than to provide the spark the franchise, appease the fanbase, appease the golden boy QB and bring instant credibility to the sidelines. Gase is a laughing stock. People are already mocking the Jets and it’s a very uphill battle moving forward for a team whose name spells out “just end the season”.

But at least, for the first time since Bill Parcells in 1997, the Jets hired a guy with previous head coaching experience. Even if that experience was a failure.

Ranking the Top 10 Super Bowl Options

We are down to the final 8 teams in the NFL playoffs. With two weeks remaining until the Super Bowl LIII teams are determined, let’s evaluate the top 10 most exciting Super Bowl 53 matchups.

10. Colts vs Saints

This was the only appealing option for the Colts. This would be a rematch of the Saints lone Super Bowl win from the 2009 season. Andrew Luck vs Drew Brees is an exciting storyline.

9. Chiefs vs Cowboys

Not a lot of history between these teams as opponents (only 11 meetings) but these are two old school, traditional teams that individually have a ton of history and among the larger fanbases in the league, with fans spread all across the world.

8. Patriots vs Rams

Forget Todd Gurley vs Patriots defense. Forget Jared Goff and Tom Brady. Forget the Brandon Cooks connection. This matchup is most fascinating because of the coaches. I want to see the chess match of in-game adjustments between Bill Belichick and Sean McVay. This is also a rematch of Super Bowl XXVI in 2002, which is fascinating because the Rams have had 20 starting QBs since 2002 while the Patriots are still rolling with Tom Brady (they also used Matt Cassel for one season).

7. Chiefs vs Eagles

Andy Reid is considered by many to be the best coach in the NFL without a Super Bowl ring. Having the chance to win one against his former team, where he spent 14 years of his career, going 130-93-1 from 1999-2012, would be poetic. Not just his former team but his former assistant coach – Eagles coach Doug Pederson was Reid’s OC in Kansas City from 2013-15. Nick Foles spent the 2016 season in KC and obviously went undefeated as the starting QB (1-0), before returning to Philly last year.

6. Chargers vs Rams

Three years ago football in Los Angeles did not exist. Football in St. Louis and San Diego did. Imagine three years later, not just one but two LA teams battle it out in the Super Bowl (on the other side of the country in Atlanta). Since the arrival of the Chargers in 2017, these teams are a combined 45-19.

5. Patriots vs Cowboys

America’s team vs the team America hates (I’m leaving this open for interpretation as to which team is which). Both teams are actually pretty well despised by NFL fans, not affiliated with these teams, yet the ratings for this would likely shatter records given the teams and players involved.

4. Chargers vs Saints

Philip Rivers is the only QB from the famed 2001 NFL draft without a Super Bowl appearance (Eli Manning and Ben Roethlisberger both have Super Bowl rings and we are pretending JP Losman doesn’t exist in this scenario of “every QB”). Rivers took over the Chargers from Drew Brees and Brees has dominated the league with the Saints ever since. This storyline would be thrilling.

3. Patriots vs Saints

Who wouldn’t be excited for Tom Brady vs Drew Brees? During this era of the Patriots, Tom Brady’s counterpart at QB has been Kurt Warner, Eli Manning (twice), Donovan McNabb, Matt Ryan, Nick Foles, Russell Wilson, Jake Delhomme. All due respect to several Hall of Famers on the list, like Foles and Delhomme, but Brees would by far be the best opponent the Patriots have faced.

2. Chiefs vs Rams

Proclaimed as the game of the year from November 19. Both teams combined for 105 points and 1,001 yards. Let’s see it again with everything at stake.

1. Chiefs vs Saints

Chiefs vs Rams was awesome but since we saw that exact game, the best possible Super Bowl would be something we haven’t seen. How about the Saints, who beat the Rams one week after they beat the Chiefs. How about the teams with the two guys are likely to finish 1-2 in the MVP race (Drew Brees vs Patrick Mahomes). Two Hall of Fame coaches and a ghandful of high powered offense weapons – Alvin Kamara, Mark Ingram, Michael Thomas, Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelce. Sign me up and bet the over.

College Basketball Recap – 1/9

We are now down to only two undefeated teams, as Houston lost a road game to Temple. Michigan and Virginia are the only remaining unbeatens

Marquette beat Creighton in the game of the night, 106-104. Marquette star Markus Howard scored 53 points, shooting 15-26 from the floor and 10-14 from three

The upset of the night came from Piscataway, NJ where Rutgers beat 16th ranked Ohio State 64-61

One of the best coaching jobs in 2018-19 has been Ole Miss coach Kermit Davis. Rebels upset #11 Auburn 82-67, to improve to 12-2 on the year and 2-0 in SEC play. It speaks to volumes to how good of a coach he is, that his old team, Middle Tennessee, is 3-12.

Stat of the Day

Patriots are 19-3 at home in the playoffs in the Bill Belichick/Tom Brady era. Those three losses are to the Ravens twice and the Jets. Can the Chargers become loss #4?

Dumb Take of the Day

I don’t know who this Jason Smith is, but I don’t think I want to know. “Coaching the 2018 Rookie of the Year who led a team with 3 wins in 3 years is not appealing to successful coaches”. Well, good thing for the Browns that Freddie Kitchens doesn’t have a long track record of being “successful” and that coaching Mayfield was more appealing to him than coaching some star like Case Keenum, Ryan Tannehill or Blake Bortles.

"Coaching Baker Mayfield is not something that appeals to successful head coaches."

Beginning January 14, M!KEDROPSPORTS will be offering the opportunity for fans to contribute to daily themes, beginning with “Motivation Monday” and continuing one week from today with “Throwback Thursday”. Tell us about one of your favorite moments in sports! Whether it’s a game you attended or something meaningful to you.